Monday, October 21, 2013

Some finished socks

It's been months since I could say this, but Yay! I've actually finished a pair of socks.

Aren't they lovely colours?

And take a look at the stripes. They match up perfectly.

These are socks I knit on real, round, 2.25mm needles, which I haven't done since last winter when I started to think my square-needle socks were a bit too loose for resisting holes. As you may recall, I started knitting three different pairs of socks on four different kinds of round dpns, by way of auditioning permanent replacements for the squares. Now, I still need to write a post comparing all these different needles, but today's news is that I have just made a discovery that applies to all of them:

Round needles are smaller than square needles a size larger.

I know: shocking. And even more shocking, if you knit socks with round needles without adjusting the pattern you were using for squares, those socks will also be smaller. This is a fact that applies especially to foot length.

If you can believe it - and if you've been reading Hugs for a while I'm sure you will - I didn't notice this until it was too late because I not only finished knitting both socks but actually grafted the first toe shut and ran in the ends before I bothered to try one on.

Surprise! They are too short for me.

As I mentioned the other day I have a problem with a pair of SockZombie children clawing at me whenever they're within range, but they are SockZombie boys, and neither would bite for socks with pink stripes. (I guessed as much but asked anyway.) Besides which their feet are my size now too so I would still have had to rip out and reknit and all that stuff.

Fortunately, I have a knitworthy neighbour whose feet are very small. In fact, when I asked her to humour me and measure her foot length, she came back with exactly the same number of centimeters as these socks are.

So it would seem that all along they were meant to go live at Beth's house where I know they will be very happy and deeply appreciated.

WHEW.

This whole strategy I came up with for less guilt about knitting for myself all the time - the one where I mess up socks that turn out to fit other people perfectly - is paying off already. Am I lucky or what? and even luckier: I came up with a solution for the SockZombies that doesn't involve putting my hands over my ears and chanting LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU, which I will show you another day.

For now: go have fun and do something nice for yourself, and I will too!